The basis of our dealing with the world is the same as dealing with sin. It is based upon the sense of life obtained during fellowship. God has never asked an individual to separate himself in a moment’s time from all unholiness and all things which usurp him. God wants man to deal with the things which he feels are unholy and usurping. Practically speaking, there may be one hundred unholy things in us, but during our fellowship we become conscious, perhaps, of only ten. Therefore, God holds us responsible for only these ten. Temporarily, we are not responsible for the remaining ninety. Not until we have attained to a greater degree of fellowship in life do we become conscious of the remaining objects and deal with them.
Therefore, the basis of dealing with the world is the same as that of dealing with sin. We should pay attention to the following three principles:
1)We should deal with the world upon the basis of the inner feeling gained through fellowship. The dealing should not exceed our inner feeling.
2)We should gradually broaden the area of our fellowship so that our inner feeling touches all aspects of our life. Thus we will have dealings with the world in all aspects.
3)We should gradually deepen our fellowship so that our inner feeling concerning the world deepens; thus, we may deal more thoroughly.
Besides these three principles, there are two factors which greatly influence our inner feeling toward the world: our love for God and our spiritual growth in life. We have said that God is the standard for dealing with the world. If we are far from God, we are not conscious of our worldliness. But once we draw nigh to God, we discover many worldly matters in us. Only those who love God desire to draw nigh unto God. Therefore, if we desire to deal with the world, we should first love God. The more we love God, the more we become sensitive toward the world, and the more the world is exposed in us. Once it becomes exposed, it is being disposed of. This exposure is the enlightenment. When our love for God causes us to meet God, who is light, He enlightens and exposes the world. Whenever this light appears, it shines away the world in us. Therefore, in dealing with the world, there is no law but God, who is our standard and our measure. The degree to which we deal with the world depends upon the degree of our love for God.
Our inner feeling towards the world also depends upon our spiritual growth. The more we advance in the spiritual life and knowledge of God, the deeper we will be in knowing the world. This knowledge of the world is the inner feeling we have toward the world and forms the basis of dealing with the world. The degree of our spiritual growth is always in proportion to the degree of our dealing with the world. The life of a new believer is immature, and his knowledge towards God is limited. Consequently, his inner feeling toward the world and his dealings with the world are shallow. By comparison, the one whose life is matured and whose knowledge toward God is increased has deeper feelings toward the world. Thus his dealings with the world are more severe. The sky above is so immense and high. However, how immense and how high it is to us depends on our vision. If our vision is as narrow as the opening of a well, then the sky we see will be no larger than the opening of the well. Similarly, in each of us the world is very much, but our measure of dealing with it depends upon our inner feeling toward it, upon our knowledge of God, and upon the degree of our spiritual growth. Although dealing with the world will cause us to grow spiritually, yet if we wish to deal to the end that God may have a complete place within us, we should ask Him to draw us so that we may love Him more and pursue more for our spiritual growth, so that we may become more mature in life.
The extent to which we deal with the world is “life and peace” (Rom. 8:6). Whenever we deal with the world which we are conscious of, we should deal with it until we have peace and life within. Since these dealings are based upon the feelings of life which are derived from fellowship, they are experiences of life. Dealing with the world causes us to experience life and sense the freshness, brightness, satisfaction, strength, joy, and peace of life. In other words, we should deal with the world to the extent that we have life and peace.
If we wish to practice dealing with the world, we should pay our attention to one point-that is, to close our mind to the world.
When we begin to learn the lessons of dealing, sin and the world often return to our thinking; that is, we often have a mind to sin or to love the world. At such a time our responsibility is to close our mind and refuse these thoughts.
Of course, it is very difficult to close our mind toward the thoughts of sin, because sin lives within us. Not until we are raptured will we be delivered from this inward difficulty. Therefore, even mature and learned Christians are still tempted by thoughts of sin.
The difficulty of the world is something of an outward nature. The Bible states that sin dwells in us, but it never mentions that the world lives in us. Since the nature of the world is outward, it is easy to shut off the thoughts of the world. When speaking of dealing with the world, 1 John 2 admonishes the young saints. Thus, this matter does not require much experience; it can and ought to be practiced when we begin to follow the Lord. On the contrary, if a saint is constantly being disturbed by the world and is unable to shut out worldly thoughts, this proves that he is still young and immature.
In conclusion, when we endeavor to deal with the world, we should be determined and violent to shut out any thoughts of the world. Not only should we close the door, but we should also bar it and even make this door into a wall. In this manner we can thoroughly solve the problem of the world. For this, we should not simply wait for the Lord to constrain us with His love or for His grace to support us. We must also use our own initiative to deal with this matter. If so, worldly thoughts will never intrude again.
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